Bipolar affective disorder, AKA bipolar disorder or manic depression, is a psychological sickness in which the patient has mood swings or mood cycling. The person’s mood jumps from ordinary to manic to depressed in a cycle. Depression episodes are typically accompanied by extreme unhappiness and feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness, decreased energy, and sleeping too much. Manic episodes are usually accompanied by intense happiness, inability to sleep, increased energy, racing thoughts, and distractibility. Mixed episodes, in which the patient shows symptoms of both mania and depression at the same time, can also occur.
A combination of emotional, neurological, environmental, and biological factors cause bipolar affective disorder. The true reasons behind bipolar affective disorder are not fully understood. However, researchers and doctors are continually making advances in this area.
Bipolar affective disorder comes in 2 types. The 1st type involves a virtually constant state of minor mania, with swapping periods of extraordinary mania and depression. The second type involves tiny, minor bouts of mania, alternating with continuous depression.
Before bipolar affective disorder was completely accepted, people with the first type of the sickness were often misdiagnosed as schizophrenic. The reason being because people with type one bipolar affective disorder have delusions during their more significant manic phases, as well as the tendency to lose touch with reality.
The second type is regularly misdiagnosed as hospital depression, rather than bipolar affective disorder. The reason being because patients do not whinge about being ecstatic during their manic episodes, and are most often depressed. After medication treatment has started for depression, diagnoses are typically corrected then. Anti-depressants used with bipolar patients incline to throw the patient into a manic phase. The doctor then realizes the blunder and prescribes a mood stabilizer for the patient.
Bipolar affective disorder has many options for treatment. A mix of treatment or support and medication is the most common. Anti-psychotics, uppers, and mood stabilizers are the medication options included. Treatment options include conventional support methods, cognitive behavior care, emotive behavioral therapy, and rational behavior treatment. CBT, EBT, and RBT are fairly new forms of bipolar affective disorder treatment treatments, that have been revealed to be extremely successful. Patients who are not candidates for medication can often have successful results with CBT, EBT, or RBT therapy alone.
Very little is known about bipolar affective disorder, even though it’s not a new sickness. As doctors and researchers learn more about the brain and how it functions, the more likely a cure cure for bipolar affective disorder will be found. In the meantime, folk who think that they may show symptoms of bipolar affective disorder should contact a psychological health professional for diagnosis and treatment alternatives. People who notice these symptoms in family or mates should also find help for that person. Bipolar affective disorder does not have to control your life, if you are ready to undergo treatment to control it.
